David Puttnam at Science Gallery (Video)

I recently attended a lecture in the Open Minds series in Dublin's Science Gallery in which David Puttnam gave a wonderful lecture on 'Technology, Education and Ireland'. The lecture was recorded and is now available on YouTube. It's embedded below for your convenience. You may find the question at the end particularly interesting.

 

The Heathrow Welcome Home Party

This video has absolutely nothing to do with teaching or education but I felt that, with talk of education cuts, our failing economy and the dreadful weather, we could all do with a bit of cheering up. Possibly the most cheerful and hope filled three minutes and six seconds on the web, it's the T-Mobile welcome home party!

10 Centuries of European History in 5 Minutes

Here is a brilliant animation which history teachers might find useful which shows the changing face of European borders over the last 1000 years - all nicely wrapped up into a five minute presentation.

New Formula for Changing Mathematics Education

In this very short video from Ted.com, Arthur Benjamin gives his new formula for reform in mathematics education. Benjamin is a mathematician and magician (he coined the term mathemagics to amalgamate his two passions) and sees calculus as having little influence on our everyday lives. However, he sees one area of mathematics that can aid our understanding of economics, financing and business - statistics and probability. Do you agree with him?

Phil Beadle's Teaching Tips

Following on from Julian Girdham's review of Phil Beadle's "How to Teach", here is a short video of Phil outlining his "Top Tips for Teachers". Just a quick few words on Phil Beadle - he's an English teacher, a former United Kingdom Secondary Teacher of the Year in the National Teaching Awards, and a double Royal Television Society Award winning broadcaster for Channel 4's 'The Unteachables' and 'Can't Read Can't Write'. He writes a column called 'On Teaching' for Education Guardian. How to teach is his third book. His first was serialised in The Telegraph and his second has been used by Liverpool and Manchester United football clubs. He has been on Richard and Judy twice - now that's and achievement! I currently reading "How to Teach" and enjoying every sentence.

Inventing a Creative Education System

While a few years old now (TED 2006), this talk by Sir Ken Robinson still makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures, rather than undermines, creativity. Robinson asserts that children are exceptionally innovative and that schools suppress this creativity as children pass through the educational system.

Personally I don't believe "schools" suppress creativity. By that I mean the physical buildings or the teachers. I believe that it is, in fact, the creativity of schools and teachers that are suppressed, which may in turn to lead to the undermining of children's' creativity and innovation. Government policies, poorly constructed syllabi, lack of facilities, terminal state exams, a general lack of funding, uninspiring buildings, disputes over salaries, public perception of teachers and schools, all contribute to this stifling effect. Some schools, my own included, try to overcome these barriers and do manage to promote a sense of wonder in education through innovative approaches to teaching and learning. However, not all of these can be overcome by schools alone.